Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government is all set to open the bids it received from potential suppliers in response to the global e-tender for procurement of Covid-19 vaccines doses.
The technical bid of the tender will be opened at 11 am followed by the financial bid. The name of the companies which would supply the vaccines to the State will be known by 5 pm today.
The government on May 15 had floated the global e-tender to procure 3.8 crore vaccines from leading manufacturers across the globe.
According to the tender document, the state government will offer advance payment up to 30 per cent of the value of each purchase order.
Final payment will be ensured within two working days from the date of receipt of each consignment, it said.
The government had also earlier relaxed certain norms and conditions to facilitate more bidders to take part in the global tender for COVID-19 vaccine procurement.
The amended approval in this regard was made at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
'Relaxation has been approved in the EMD, bid security and liquidated damages to attract more vaccine manufacturers within the country and abroad," Chief Secretary S C Mohapatra had said after the cabinet meeting.
He had further said in order to facilitate the participation of manufacturers of vaccines to be stored in supercool temperature, the storage condition has been revised up to minus 20 degree Celsius, subject to the condition that the vaccines will remain stable and maintain its potency at 2 degree Celsius to 8 degree Celsius for at least 12 hours. The previous storage condition was 2 degree Celsius to 8 degree Celsius, the chief secretary said.
The relaxation in norms was incorporated following a meeting with the manufacturers on May 19.
Notably, the State government had announced to inoculate the age group of 18-44 free of cost. The number of beneficiaries of the age group is around 2 crore in the State.